ABSTRACT
Kaan Müjdeci’s Sivas depicts the process of the 11-year-old Aslan to adopt the eponymous kangal dog, upon which his father, brother, and his father’s friends take over and push Sivas into illegal dog fights to make money. In this unmistakably patriarchal setting, Aslan is the only male character of the film to acknowledge the problematic aspect of pushing dogs into fights. Nevertheless, a completely understanding approach to the animal Other is impossible in Sivas inasmuch as the only hope in extinguishing this acidic patriarchal violence on animals rests on the shoulders of a little boy who himself boasts his virility off the strength of his dog. Making similar statements about how canine Others are victimized in a male-dominated society, Emin Alper’s Frenzy contests institutionalized violence. The protagonist Kadir’s brother Ahmet is a worker of the municipality whose job is to shoot stray dogs, ironically, “for a living.” At first, Ahmet and his colleagues seem to be utterly robotic while picking off the stray dogs one by one with their rifles. However, the lines begin to blur for Ahmet when he shoots a dog but is unable to kill it. Juxtaposing the ways in which masculine identities are asserted through the violation of canine Others in Sivas and Frenzy, this chapter will discuss how these directors dispute the validation of power that operates on abusing dogs.
